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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Penguins Development Camp/Quick Hits

-The Pittsburgh Penguins first practice of the developmental camp was held yesterday at Southpointe, and it went very well. The camp started with ten players coming out to do some skating drills with an instructor. Shortly after, all of the players came out and started to do hockey drills. From what I saw yesterday, the Penguins sure have a number of talented prospects. It was great to see hockey in July. Eric Tangradi, considered the Penguins #1 prospect, certainly showed a lot of skill on the first day. He is very good on the fore-check and skates very well. His shot is very fast but he did hit the post or miss the net a lot. He showed a lot of potential to be a good player for the Penguins. He also showed that he could fit in the locker room with him joking around on the ice. Beau Bennett looked very good as well today. It was hard to do a lot of player evaluations today since each player was wearing a random number. Simon Despres may have been a steal of the 2009 draft. The Penguins really have high hopes for him, as he skated very well yesterday.
-There has been chatter about the Penguins talking to Columbus to acquire Nikita Filatov, but I do not think it is true.
-The Penguins remain in discussions with winger Maxim Afinogenov, but no offer has been made yet.